Pasquier, Stephen

, a learned Frenchman, was born in 1528 at Paris; of which city he was an advocate in parliament, afterwards a counsellor, and at last advocate-general in the chamber of accounts. He pleaded many years with very great success before the parliament, where he was almost constantly retained in the most difficult causes, and every day consulted as an oracle. He did not, however, confine his studies to the law; but was esteemed a general scholar. Henry III. gave him the, post of advocate of the chamber of accounts, which he filled with his usual reputation, and resigned it some time after to Theodore Paquier, his eldest son. He was naturally beneficent and generous; agreeable and easy in conversation his manner sweet, and his temper pleasant. He died at Paris, at the advanced age of eighty -seven, Aug. 31, 1615, and was interred in the church of St, Severin.

His works show considerable knowledge of ancient history, especially that of France; and he raised no little reputation by his attacks on the Jesuits in his “Les Recherches,” which was answered by father Garasse. His animosity to that order laid him in some measure open to this antagonist, for he very readily adopted any story, ever so improbable, which he heard of them from their bitterest enemies. All his works, however, are written with elegance and humour, and he appears to have been formed by nature equally for a poet and a lawyer. His works were first printed together at Trevoux, and passed through many editions, the last in 1665. They were afterwards printed along with those of his son Nicholas, at Amsterdam, in 1723, 2 vols. fol. Of his “Letters,” the best edition is that at Paris, in 1619, in 5 vols. 8vo. His “Poe.ns” consist of one book “Of Portraits;” six books of “Epigrams;” and a book of “Epitaphs.” But in this collection is wanting his “Catechism of the Jesuits” instead of which are inserted the letters of his son Nicolas. Among his pieces in verse, “La Pure” had at one time a fashidnable reputation. It is entitled “La, Puce des grands touii de | and contains several poems upon a flea which Paquier spied on the breast of the learned Catharine de Roches, in a visit to her on the extraordinary sessions at Poitiers in 1569. Such are the trifles by which a. nation is sometimes amused. He left three sons, of whom the eldest, Theodore, was advocate-general in the chamber of accounts; Nicolas, master of requests, whose” Letters" were printed in 1623, at Paris, containing several discourses upon the occurrences in France in the time of Henry IV. and Louis XIII. and Guy, who was auditor of the accounts. ¹